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Posted:Wed, Apr 6th, 2016 11:11:05 am

Nova Scotia beekeepers concerned about spread of beetle infestation

By Elizabeth McMillan, CBC News

A team of people from the beekeeping and wild blueberry industries will be travelling to Ontario this spring to inspect bee hives in hopes of preventing the spread of a beetle that interferes with honey crops.

Earlier this year, the province turned down a request from the Nova Scotia Beekeepers Association to close the border to ban imported bees due to the small hive beetle, which burrows in hives and can ferment honey if it isn't immediately harvested.

"Now we're just working and doing everything we can to ensure they don't enter the province," said Lauren Park, the association's president.

"It's a really tough thing to say I'm 100 per cent confident. The beetles seem to, anywhere they are in the world, they seem to kind of spread regardless of what people are doing."